Privet Drive Rescue
by opungo
Summary: Oneshot. My take on how Ron, Fred, and George decided to fly over to Privet drive and rescue Harry. Set during COS.


Ron was worried and confused. He'd been that way for a while. It was summer and he'd written to his friend, Harry Potter, numerous times and even asked him to stay in twelve of his letters. Harry had yet to reply. He'd gotten plenty of letters from Hermione Granger, another of his friends, but none from Harry. He'd even sent Harry a birthday card, but there was still nothing. Ron sat down to dinner that night, hoping Harry would get his card on his birthday.

"Are you okay, Ron?" Ginny asked. She was Ron's little sister. Ron shrugged.

"I've asked Harry to stay about twelve times," Ron admitted. "He hasn't been answering any of my letters." Ginny turned red and smiled at the mention of Harry. It was no secret at the Burrow that she fancied him.

"Well maybe he has a good reason for not writing back," Mrs. Weasley said. At that moment they heard the front door shut and in walked Ron's dad, Mr. Weasley, came in to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"How was work, father?" Percy asked pompously.

"It was fine," Mr. Weasley said dismissively. "I heard something about Harry at work today, Ron."

Everybody went quiet. Ron raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"What happened? What did he do?" Ron asked.

"Apparently," said Mr. Weasley as he cut up his meat. "he used a Hover Charm at his house and he got a warning from the Ministry."

"Harry's not thick enough to use a Hover Charm," Fred pointed out. "He knows we're not supposed to use magic outside of school."

"He's the only wizard for miles where he lives. I even managed to get a copy of the letter."

Mr. Weasley reached a hand in to his pocket, extracted an envelope, and handed it over to Ron. Fred and George looked over Ron's shoulder as he first read the address (Mr. H. Potter, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey) and then the letter telling him his offense, not to do it again, and to have a nice holiday.

"I'm sure Harry won't do any more magic," Mr. Weasley assured Ron. Ron pocketed the letter and ate his dinner slowly. Fred and George ate their dinner at a rapid pace and bounded upstairs. Ron couldn't understand why Harry would do magic when they weren't supposed to. Harry knew it was forbidden, they had gotten notices at the end of the year and everything.

Ron dragged himself upstairs, thinking that Harry might actually answer another letter. However, any thoughts of writing to Harry were immediately extinguished from his mind when he walked in to his room and found Fred and George there. Fred was flipping through one of Ron's comic books (The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle). George was simply looking around at the many Chudley Cannons posters on the wall. He looked up, however, when he saw Ron had come in to the room.

"Took you long enough," George commented. "Shut the door, will you? Fred and I need to talk with you." Ron, although confused at the whole situation, shut the door behind him.

"What're you two doing up here?"

"George and I have been talking it over-" said Fred, putting down the comic book.

"-and we think it's about time-"

"-to pay Harry a visit-"

"-and bring him back here for the summer."

Ron felt his jaw drop slightly. Fred and George were going to try and get Harry? Ron had admittedly been thinking along the same lines but the best plan he could come up with was flying to Harry on his broom, a Shooting Star, which was easily outstripped by butterflies.

"First, we need to know exactly where Harry lives," George said. He held out his hand and Ron knew at once he wanted the letter with Harry's address.

"As long as I get to help get him," Ron said, holding out the letter.

"Of course you're helping," said Fred, glancing at the letter in George's hand and copying it down a piece of parchment. "Did you think we'd ask Percy? He'd murder us for what we're planning.

"And Ginny would be so excited at the thought of seeing Harry," said George. "she'd probably faint. Or die from shock. Hard to tell which one she'd do. Both seem pretty likely."

Ron sniggered.

"How do you plan on getting there?" Ron asked.

"We'll let you know," George said with a mischievous grin. "For now, don't worry about it. Fred and I are off to do some research-"

"Research?" Ron questioned.

"We're going to get some maps at that Muggle library in the village," Fred explained. "Find out exactly where Surrey is." They left the room, leaving Ron to think happily that he would get to see Harry soon.

Four days passed and Ron was beginning to become worried again. Fred and George made absolutely no indication that they were planning on getting Harry away from Privet Drive any time soon. Mr. Weasley had to work that night and had a few words with Mrs. Weasley before leaving, probably about Harry. After Percy, Ginny, Fred, and George left the table, Ron went to his own bedroom. Exhausted just from thinking about how Fred and George planned to get to Harry, Ron went to sleep, still fully dressed.

It only seemed as if he had been asleep for two seconds when he was being shaken awake. He could see two figures standing over him. Fred and George.

"Wu-" was all Ron managed to say before George clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Be very quiet and get dressed," George whispered and removing his hand from Ron's mouth. "Forget that last statement, you're already dressed." Ron had just pulled his covers off of himself.

"Just grab your shoes but don't put them on yet," Fred ordered in a whisper. "Follow us."

Ron grabbed his shoes. Fred took Ron's pillows and arranged them to look like a sleeping Ron. He even took out a pair of furry orange slippers that Ron guessed was supposed to be his hair. George opened the bedroom door, put a finger to his lips, and waved his hand for Ron to follow. All three of them crept down the stairs, each holding a pair of shoes in their hand and skipping over any creaking steps. It was when they got all the way to the front door that Ron finally realized that they were going to go and rescue Harry.

Fred carefully opened the kitchen door and beckoned them outside. Once George and Ron were in the yard, Fred carefully shut the door again and pulled on his shoes. George and Ron did the same. Then, Fred walked briskly over to the garage and started picking the lock. Ron fully understood at that moment what Fred and George had planed on doing to get Harry away from his aunt and uncle.

"We're taking the car?" Ron asked incredulously. George nodded and cracked a grin. "How do you plan on starting it? We're not allowed to use magic and dad said you need a key to start-"

Ron stopped his sentence short. George extracted a key from his pocket and waved it in front of Ron's face.

"Got it!" Fred whispered excitedly. The garage swung open to reveal an old turquoise car. Not just a regular old car. This one could fly. Ron climbed in to the back seat as Fred got in to the drivers seat. George opened his door and threw a long rope in to the back seat with Ron before sitting down.

"What's the rope for?" Ron asked.

"Just in case," Fred answered simply. He put a key in the lock and the car's motor automatically started. Fred turned off the headlights and drove the car out of the garage. George hopped out of the car once outside the garage and shut the doors to it, positioning the lock so it looked as if it was locked when it really wasn't.

Once back inside the car, Fred drove it on to the main road and halfway down it, shifted gears and the car took off in to the air.

"What time is it?" Ron yawned.

"Midnight," George answered. He was busy studying two maps. Ron glanced at the first and saw a red line from Ottery St. Catchpole to Surrey. The second was just a map of Surrey and all the streets in it. Ron saw they had also made a red line on one of the streets. It was, no doubt, Privet Drive.

There was very little talk between the three of them for the next few hours. Only George telling Fred what direction to go and telling him when they were approaching a brightly lit town. Just as Ron was thinking that they would never get there, George said happily from the passenger seat, "I think we're here!"

Ron looked at the houses below them. They all looked exactly the same. How were they supposed to find Harry's?

Fred touched the car down to the road and read the street signs aloud as he passed them.

"Yeah, they match up to the ones on the map," George said. "Two more streets is Privet Drive."

Fred nodded and put his foot on the accelerator, speeding up the car. George stowed the maps in the glove compartment.

"Eighteen…sixteen…fourteen," Fred read as he passed the houses. "…eight…six…four. Four! This is it!" A sort of explosion erupted in the pit of Ron's stomach. They made it!

"A bit nicer than the Burrow, I'll admit," said George. "Where do you think Harry's bedroom is?"

"We'll check them all," Fred decided. The car went in to the air again, but was hardly touching the grass as they peered through the windows of all the downstairs rooms.

"No, that's the sitting room," George said.

"Blimey these people are tidy!" Ron said as they passed the kitchen.

"Upstairs then." Fred brought the car up higher and peered through the first window they could find. "No that's a boulder and some sort of chicken."

"Must be Harry's aunt and uncle," Ron said grinning.

"Whatever kind of diet his aunt's on, his uncle should go on it too," said George as they sped off to the next window. The bedroom was empty. It had to be a guest room. The next room held a sleeping boy, but not Harry.

"That, dear little brother," George stated. "is the reason you should always eat your vegetables. Ron and Fred sniggered at Harry's fat cousin before speeding off to the next room. Ron peered through the window and saw a snowy owl in a padlocked cage, staring at all of them. In the bed was a boy with messy-black hair twisting around in his sleep. What really bothered Ron was that there were bars on Harry's window.

"You know, I thought Harry was exaggerating about how bad his aunt and uncle were at first," George commented. "but he was really just making a lot of understatements." Ron rolled down his window and commenced to tap on the glass until Harry woke up.


End file.
